Family Fest Day 3: The Fairies in the Forest Teaparty

My sweet Happy fairy, on her 6th birthday:

(Didn't her tutu and wings turn out so pretty?)

We held the party--as tradition demanded--in a secretive spot on the grounds of our local elementary school a bit down the road.  I discovered it quite by chance years ago, when I was out early one morning walking our dog Macey.  You start at the parking lot behind the school, and if you get close enough to the far edge, you will see a path leading down a slope.  Follow the path, and you come to a Y--the left fork takes you down to a small grassy clearing, where there are wooden benches and metal picnic tables, an area used by the teachers for outdoor science, I assume.  The right fork leads down an overgrown path to the most beautiful stand of old redwoods, including some enormous first growth stumps.  If you keep following that path, you get to a pretty little woodland creek.  It is actually the same creek that runs behind our house, and the trees in our backyard are the same kinds of trees, and we do have some good sized stumps, but there is something almost solemn and magical about the stand below the school which makes it perfect for a fairies' party. 

So when the fairy guests had all arrived, we began with the fairy portait there in the clearing:

Then I gave the children their party favors--pretty little handmade bubble wands I found on etsy--and we started our bubble ballet.  (To better capture the spirit of it while you browse the pics, listen to a few of our best fairy ballet selections here and here. : )

(Their expressions are so cute--they were in serious fairy ballet playacting mode ; )

Papa having fun trying to catch bubbles being blown to him.

 

Even our own little winged Smiley did his best bubble blowing.

 

Then we had the fairy parade, led by the birthday girl, down to the redwood stand, where I read our traditional story, "A Fairy Went A Marketing" to the group.  (A truly special story, with an excellent message and lovely artwork--I highly recommend it.)

Then the fairies romped amidst the trees while I went back to set up the tables for the teaparty.   We brought out all the flower and star-shaped sugar cookies my nieces had made earlier with my girls, and the children decorated them with pastel-tinted frosting and various sprinkles. 

Then it was time for a few gifts.  Also per tradition, we requested our guests bring a little something for an Operation Christmas Child shoebox for a little girl Happy's age, in lieu of a gift.  But a few of the guests brought a little something for Happy anyway--and I must say that was one of my favorite parts of the event.  You see, I truly abhor the usual big birthday party gift-giving thing: the huge piles of gifts that one child surely does not need or even really want; my feelings of guilt if the gift bag I added to the pile is not big as the other bags; the cost of buying something relatively expensive (even a nice picture book is $15, which is not a small amount of money for a child you often don't even know) that you don't even know if the child will like.  I know, I sound like a grinch--but I loath the whole forced thing, and so we have made choices over the years to keep our birthday celebrations free from such expectations and focuses. 

But the friends we invited to the party are some of our favorite people, and they understand the true spirit of gift-giving.  So some of our fairy friends gave Happy pretty little trinkets from their own play jewelry collections. . .

. . . little things that showed thoughtfulness and love, which were given out of a genuine desire to give and not a resigned understanding of over-materialistic birthday-culture expectations.  Some of our fairy friends did not bring any gifts, which is also refreshing--they knew their presence at the party was sending Happy a message of friendship and care which can be as meaningful as a gift.  I know Happy truly felt loved and celebrated on her birthday, and that was what the day was all about!